Credit for Accreditation: Family Child Care

Today we offer congratulations to the family child care providers in Massachusetts who earned accreditation or reaccreditation from the National Association for Family Child Care (NAFCC) in the fourth quarter of 2012 – October 1 to December 31.

Kathy Modigliani, who runs the Bay State-based Family Child Care Project, remembers noticing the positive impact going through the accreditation process had on center-based teachers. Why not do something similar for family child care providers? Today NAFCC operates the only nationally recognized accreditation system established specifically for home-based family child care providers. Modigliani led its development between 1995 and 1999, when she was based at Wheelock College in Boston.

NAFCC accreditation has standards in five content areas: relationships, environment, developmental learning activities, safety and health, and professional and business practices.

“There have been many studies that have shown that accredited providers offer a significantly higher quality of care than others,” Modigliani notes.

In going through the accreditation process, Modigliani observes, early educators put into practice what they learn in college courses or Child Development Associate (CDA) training. “To motivate providers to put what they are learning into practice is something accreditation is important for,” she says. “I really think accreditation for both centers and homes is a critical piece in the Quality Rating and Improvement Systems (QRIS) because it assesses what is happening in the program.”

Congratulations to the 16 family child care providers in Massachusetts who earned NAFCC accreditation or reaccreditation in the third quarter of 2012:

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The Institute for Education and Professional Deevelopment has a comprehensive support program to help family child care programs acheive Accreditation. Many of these educators benefited from it! The programs are also supported throuth their regional EPS program. Family child care r educators who are interested in finding out more about accreditation can contact their regional EPS agency or contact me at L.schumacher@iepd.org.

Linda Schumacher
Early Education and Care Specialist and NAFCC Accreditation Council member
The Institute for Education and Professional Development
Milford, MA 01757
888-353-4373

Eye on Early Education focuses on the twin goals of ensuring that Massachusetts children have access to high-quality early education and become proficient readers by the end of third grade.

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Alyssa Haywoode comes to Eye on Early Education after a career in journalism that included writing editorials for the Des Moines Register and Boston Globe. She has written about education, human services, immigration, homelessness, philanthropy and the arts.